Is this Velvet or parasite? Trying to save last 3 fish..

[DieHardPhotog-Reefer]

Kanaplex can be used in the quarantine tank. It wouldn't hurt to add metroplex to the mix. If not seeing improvement you can also add furan2. That trio is often called the "trifecta" around here because it provides a broad spectrum of antibiotics to target different types of bacteria.

The metroplex is metronidazole and I would definitely add that in if I was dealing with brook.

Do you have an ammonia alert badge? Would be good idea since you didn't have the benefit of seeded media.

Also adding something like selcon pr a vitamin supplement to the food, would help provide good nutrition for healing

Thanks for the confirmation. I've already put in the 1.5 scoops of Kanaplex and will have to go to the LFS tomorrow for the other two or wait until Tues/Wed for a shipment. I'd prefer to get them safe as soon as possible since these are among the 1st five fish that the tank was started with (fish/family love relationship).

1. We've got a few old ammonia badges that were in previous QT tanks. Can they be reused after being sanitized with vinegar, rinsed in water and dried? If not, I'll just have to order a couple more but I have a Red Sea Ammonia test kit in the meantime.
2. The Kanaplex instructions say to repeat every 2 days until the symptoms disappear. Considering a good portion of the tail fins and fins are completely gone, is repeating the Kanaplex still applicable? It's not like they're going to grow back over the next few days.

 

[HotRocks]

Thanks for the confirmation. I've already put in the 1.5 scoops of Kanaplex and will have to go to the LFS tomorrow for the other two or wait until Tues/Wed for a shipment. I'd prefer to get them safe as soon as possible since these are among the 1st five fish that the tank was started with (fish/family love relationship).

1. We've got a few old ammonia badges that were in previous QT tanks. Can they be reused after being sanitized with vinegar, rinsed in water and dried? If not, I'll just have to order a couple more but I have a Red Sea Ammonia test kit in the meantime.
2. The Kanaplex instructions say to repeat every 2 days until the symptoms disappear. Considering a good portion of the tail fins and fins are completely gone, is repeating the Kanaplex still applicable? It's not like they're going to grow back over the next few days.

1. I would just order new badges to be safe. They are only good for a year or so anyway.

2. Use the Kanaplex for 10-14 days, dosing every other day. Regardless if you start to see improvement. Fish are typically slow to respond to antibiotics.

 

[DieHardPhotog-Reefer]

Got it. Much appreciation to everyone!

 

[Humblefish]

Unfortunately, we didn't get them into the Rally treatment before their fins and tailfins were extremely damaged. I'm guessing this is what was called "fin rot" in the list of diseases? We have two 5 gram packages of Kanaplex. Is this the next step and should it be a separate bath like the Rally or is it okay to put it in the new QT tank?

A Rally bath can help treat a bacterial infection (which is what usually causes fin & tail rot); but to completely knock it out, antibiotic treatment in a QT for 10-14 days is often required. As mentioned above, Kanaplex + Furan-2 + Metroplex is an excellent combination to use.

 

[DieHardPhotog-Reefer]

Hi again everyone,
My wife and I appreciate all the support and information you've provided. Our last few fish are moving around much better now that they've been in the treatment for a few days but I would like to ask for clarification on the usage of KanaPlex + Furan 2 + Metroplex. The Furan 2 package says dose one packet every day with 25% water changes every other day. The Metroplex and Kanaplex are dosed every other day.

1. Regardless of the Furan-2 package suggestion of 4 doses which is only 4 days, should we continue to dose it every day for 10-14 days with the same process of 25% water changes every other day?
2. The Kanaplex says to dose every 48 hours up to 3 doses but can be repeated in severe cases as long as the fish show no signs of stress. What would be the symptoms of a stressed clownfish considering more than 90% of his tailfin has be eaten away by some disease? Should I just keep dosing every 48 hours until the 14 days is up?
3. Their fins have definitely stopped deteriorating, they're swimming around more and they've all started eating again but the fins don't seem to be growing back quickly so I'm assuming that's a slow process that happens after the medication treatments end? (Note that we just got our order of Selcon food supplement last night so we started adding it to their daily food.)

The Hospital/QT setup is for 3 clownfish separated into two 7.5 gallon QT compartments with no light. Each compartment has an AquaClear 50 HOB filter (rated for 20-50 gal), 1 air stone, and a heater.

 

[cmcoker]

Yes, keep following the package directions for all three, except continue for the full 14 days.

Healing takes some time, the fats in the selcon will help them have the energy stores to do so, ime. Just watch the amount you use as I've seen some haziness in qt if I get too heavy handed with it.

Glad things are improving!

 

[DieHardPhotog-Reefer]

Yes, keep following the package directions for all three, except continue for the full 14 days.

Healing takes some time, the fats in the selcon will help them have the energy stores to do so, ime. Just watch the amount you use as I've seen some haziness in qt if I get too heavy handed with it.

Glad things are improving!

Thank you!!!! That's such a relief to know. Glad to know there's an amazing support group out there. I hope we'll be able to pay it forward one day very soon.

 

[Nopy117]

Did you happen to figure out how this got into the DT? Also are you Qt'ing all coral/inverts?

 

[DieHardPhotog-Reefer]

Did you happen to figure out how this got into the DT? Also are you Qt'ing all coral/inverts?

We can only guess which of many failures caused the problem. We took several different series of unnecessary risks as we can see from the logs in the Apex:
1. April 30 - Added 1 anemone, 1 cleaner shrimp and 1 red fire shrimp from LFS without QT. (Anemone was dying in just 2 weeks).
2. May 06 - Added 4 of 7 Chromis to MDT after 45 days of QT but the copper treatment may have been weakened due to large water changes.
3. May 06 - Added 1 Coral Beauty which was in QT (without copper) for 45 days but didn't realize the 1 or 2 instances of stringy poop was evidence of a parasite.
4. May 31 - Added two Trochus snails from QT after only 30 days because it seemed we were losing 50-75% of the snails. (Just last week we saw a video explaining that the problem may have been from too high Calcium or Magnesium level due to precipitate in the salt water mixing station)
5. June 3 - Rearranged the sump's water flow to try more efficient Trident type method (removed filter socks, moved the skimmer behind a course filter after the flow of the macro-algae, pulled most of the macro algae from the display refugium back into the sump & discarded the rest)
6. June 3 - Added 8 ounces of macro-algae from Algaebarn without putting it in QT.
7. June 3 - Added my usual biweekly dose of 50-60 ml of Probiotic Marine Formula which we had been using from the very beginning but this time the contents in the new bottle had changed color from blue to a red tint. I assumed it was a manufacturer's adjustment.
8. June 3 - Moved 3 snails & 2 sea urchin from QT after only 30 days in an effort to resolve hair algae growth in previous display refugium.

So yeah, we're puzzled at which point the disease was brought in but not really surprised as we've learned more and more about not trusting outside sources and that EVERYTHING is a threat.

My main questions now are:
1 - Is Probiotic Marine Formula bottle contaminated with something because it's red instead of blue liquid?
2 - Can I trust adding Macro Algae from Algaebarn without QT (if not, how do you QT macro algae??)
3 - How to keep best keep invertebrae like shrimp alive for 45 days in QT
4 - How will I be able to keep the 120 gal of Main Display functional for 76 days of FALLOW without my macro algae taking a dive for the worst.

 

[ScooterV]

2. I "think" Algaebarn have fish free systems their macro comes from, but someone would have to confirm that, ask them, or QT to be safe.
3. Shrimp will eat almost anything, as will most inverts but algae wafers work well.
4. You can still ghost feed small amounts as if the fish were still there.